How is it? How does it stack up against the first two entries? Is there even a continuity of sound? Now, we finally have Man on the Moon III. But no, Cudi took somewhat of a detour from his original sound, releasing Indicud in 2013 which featured an eclectic mix of collaborators– what other album can claim to feature both Kendrick Lamar and Father John Misty?– then a sort of prelude project to the final instalment of the trilogy, titled Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon.Īfter that he had a few other projects, most notably Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven, a sort of grunge-rap album from which he faced the worst critical response of his career, and KIDS SEE GHOSTS, a short collab album with long-time collaborator Kanye West.
Man on the Moon III has been a long time coming, as fans expected the third entry in the trilogy quickly due to the first two entries only being just over a year apart from each other. Around the same time, Kid Cudi released the trailer for the final entry in the trilogy, and then just a week ago he announced the album’s drop date – December 11. His music might still be relatable, but it has never sounded so cliché.Just over a month ago it was the ten-year anniversary of the second album in Kid Cudi’s Man On The Moon trilogy, Man on the Moon II: The Legend of Mr. Kid Cudi’s ability to be an avatar for people’s struggles with mental illness has always been central to his appeal. This tidy arc, which moves from dark to light and resolves easily, coupled with the pompous title and division of the album into several acts (in accordance with MOTM custom) gives Man on the Moon III: The Chosen the faux-epic scope of an Avengers movie. By the end, Cudi has renewed his lease on life “shit is gravy,” he concludes on the finale “Lord I Know.” Rager.” Over the course of the second half of The Chosen, the production palette lightens and hedges closer to the blend of indie rock, synth-pop, and hip hop that defined the first two MOTM albums.
The narrative premise Man on the Moon III: The Chosen is more half-baked according to the album’s jacket copy, “in one night, must face himself again and fight to win back his soul from the evil Mr. Waluigi is the true nowhere man, without the other characters he reflects, inverts, and parodies he has no reason to exist.” “Show Out” is music, not a fictional Italian scoundrel, which means that its existence is not simply relative, but offensive.Ģ010’s Man on the Moon II successfully developed the themes of its predecessor-hedonism, fame, and depression collide, resulting in the creation of Cudi’s destructive alter-ego Mr. The mind-boggling degrees of bastardization, which begin with Cudi’s own influence on Scott, recall “I, We, Waluigi: A Post-Modern Analysis of Waluigi” : “You invert Mario to create Wario-Mario turned septic and libertarian-then you reflect the inversion in the reflection: you create a being who can only exist in reference to others. The worst song on The Chosen is “Show Out” (featuring Pop Smoke and Skepta), which attempts to graft Scott’s style onto contemporary drill a la “GATTI,” except with a knock-off 808Melo beat. The pathos of the album’s bleakest five-song stretch, from “Another Day” to “Heaven On Earth,” becomes diminished in the distracting presence of Travis-esque ad-libs, cadences, Autotuned hum crescendos, and gothic minor-key synths.
Kid cudi album review man on the moon full#
“Feeling something, I can’t ignore my instincts,” he hum-sings on the opener “Tequila Shots,” “back just where I started, it’s the same old damaged song.” The Chosen comes full circle in another way-in its first half, Cudi cribs aggressively from his most commercially successful acolyte, Travis Scott. Once again, he sends a beleaguered dispatch from the center of an emotional typhoon. Once again, with his latest album Man on the Moon III: The Chosen, Cudi sends a beleaguered dispatch from the center of an emotional typhoon.
Cudi’s latest album Man on the Moon III: The Chosen shows that he’s still something of a pop wizard who possesses the knack for both melodrama and earworm melodies.